HSWW, Asst 1 | Gryffindor | Medieval & Renaissance Studies, Task 4 | Write about someone being sacrificed.
IPC - 850 - [Setting] Hospital
365 - 164 - Innocent

Summer Seasonal Prompts:

Days of the Year - World Rainforest Day - Write about trying to protect a place.
Romance Awareness Month - MaryFabian
National Indoor Plant Month - 11. Aloe - [occupation] Healer
Colours - 12. Apple Green
Flowers - 2. Snapdragon - [dialogue] "I just want to help you. Why won't you let me?"
Build-a-Fairytale - Step 3: The Villain… - 2. Just wants some respect - [dialogue] "Can't you just listen to what I say for once?"

Camp Hogwarts Prompts:

Tug of War - 12. [Band/Songfic] Imagine Dragons
Archery - 20. [dialogue] "I'll help you."
Crazy Golf - Hole 6: Music-alley - Write a songfic
Cooking - 20. Tomatoes - [word] collide
Caving - 13. Duct tape - [dialogue] "We stick together. That's what we've always done."
Nature Hunt - Moderate Nature Objects - 2. Fresh snails - Write a Marauders Era character you've never written before (or rarely write) - Frank Longbottom
Fairy Gardens - 12. Window with shutters - [colour] lime green
Horse Riding - 16. Willow - [era] Marauders
Balloon Animals - 14. Shark - [word] sharp
Marbles - 22. [character] Frank Longbottom

WC: 2359

o . o . o

The Wolves All Cry

I'll bleed out for you
So I bear my skin
And I count my sins
And I close my eyes
And I take it in*

An explosion echoed throughout the hospital, the floor shaking, and Mary looked up in alarm. She had been tending to her patients, and they looked at her now with fear and confusion in their faces. A room full of new mothers with their brand new babies nestled next to them.

"Healer Macdonald?" Maggie Bell asked, one hand rubbing the blanket the covered her baby girl.

"I - it was probably just something down in Artefact Accidents," Mary assured the group of mothers, although she felt like her own blood had turned to ice water. Despite her words, she felt almost sure that the explosion had not come from a magical artefact. "I'll just go check in at the floor directory station to be sure."

Frank was waiting there - he had been assigned to St. Mungo's for the night, along with Fabian, Gideon, and Emmeline. The Order had been rotating guards for the hospital for nearly two weeks after mysterious intelligence had warned Dumbledore that it would likely be attacked by Death Eaters in the coming nights. It looked like tonight was the night they finally showed up.

Mary rushed down the hallway, lime green Healer's robes flapping behind her like a cape. Usually, the uniform made her feel heroic, but tonight it was just a reminder of how many people were counting on her for protection. It was a lot of pressure.

"Frank!" she called, looking for her friend as she whipped around the corner.

He wasn't sitting at the central desk, but he'd heard her call, and it only took a moment before his head was poking out of a patient's room across the hall. He motioned to her, and Mary sprinted as quickly as she could, sliding through the doorway as Frank slammed the door shut behind her.

"They're here, aren't they?" she asked him, panting slightly.

Frank nodded, his blue eyes sorrowful as though he hated telling her the truth.

"Gideon sent a message up," he explained. "He counted seven of them."

"Oh fantastic, I love being outnumbered," Mary sighed.

"Our job is to hold this floor," Frank continued, repeating the information they'd be given in their pre-mission brief. "I don't think they'll be too interested in it, there aren't any fighters here or anything like that, but Albus wants us to make sure that no innocent bystanders are hurt."

"Got it," she confirmed. "We should cover the stairwells. I need to go calm all my patients and then I can take the east staircase, you should go to the west one."

"If they come down from above we'll be sitting ducks," Frank protested weakly. "It's a risky plan."

"It's a Death Eater attack, Frank, there aren't any safe plans," she pointed out, and it almost coaxed a smile from him. "It's risky, but it's the best plan we have."

Frank nodded, and knowing he was on board, Mary slipped out of the room and back down the hallway to her ward. Taking a deep breath, she steadied herself, preparing herself for the conversation that was to come.

"I don't want to alarm you all," she announced as soon as she was through the door of the ward, trying to appear as calm and collected as possible, "but I won't lie to you. The hospital is under attack. Please try not to worry, we have a team here to protect all of our patients, and I will make sure to keep you and your babies safe. I promise."

"Give me my wand, I want to fight," Mrs. Bell stated, her expression firm and her voice decisive.

"None of you are fighting," Mary replied, even as she went over to the safe storage locker where they kept the wands of everyone in the ward except the Healers - far too many accidents happened with sleep deprived and stressed parents trying to use spells to soothe their babies. "You can have your wands, but only for self-defense. None of you leaves this ward. I'll be outside as the first line of defense, and nothing is going to get past me. But just in case, I'll cast a shield across the entrance to the ward so that I'll be the only one who can pass through. It won't be hard to break down, but at least you'll have some notice that someone else is trying to get in."

The women all nodded, most of them looking terrified out of their mind. It was a sentiment that Mary shared, and although she wished she could have reassured them more, it was better that they knew the truth.

After making a final few check ups and getting the women settled for the time being, Mary excused herself from the ward. As she walked down the corridor toward the staircase, she pulled the green robes from her shoulders and balled them up, tossing it over her shoulder. Where it landed, the green made it look almost like a large apple sitting on the ground. The brightness would only have served as a beacon to her location, and it was far better to be subtle at the moment. She moved to the stairwell, gripping her wand fiercely, and waited for the Death Eaters to arrive.

Minutes ticked by with painful sluggishness, and still Mary could only hear the battle raging on throughout the hospital. She was beginning to feel anxious, and a bit left out. Somewhere in the hospital, her friends were fighting, maybe even dying, meanwhile she was just sitting and waiting. As she was ruminating on these thoughts and debating whether there existed a course of action that might be more beneficial, Mary heard the clamor of footsteps running up the stairs.

Her whole body tensed as though she had been doused with ice water, and she held her wand out in front of her, stupefy on the tip of her tongue. But as she was readying to cast her spell, she saw the auburn of Fabian's hair rounding the curve of the stairs, followed by the rest of him.

She opened her mouth to ask him a question, but his expression stopped her in her tracks. Something had gone wrong, and it was more than just the average battle problems.

"Gideon?" she asked, her voice a whisper.

Fabian only shook his head, grabbing Mary's hand and squeezing it sharply before he tugged her away from the stairwell.

"They're coming," he panted. "Where's Frank?"

"The other stairwell," Mary answered. "What about Emmeline?"

"I… I don't know," Fabian replied truthfully. "She went down, but I don't know if she was just unconscious or if she's…"

"So it's just the three of us." Mary confirmed, swallowing her anxiety. There was no more time for nerves now.

Fabian threw her an apologetic glance, and she knew he wished she wasn't stuck in this fight. A fight which would probably be quite hopeless.

Hands clasped tightly, they raced across the floor together in search of Frank. He wasn't hard to find.

He was squatting by the doors to the West Stairwell, his ear pressed to them as he listened intently for the arrival of the Death Eaters. Frank held up a hand, signalling to the pair to slow down. They did, coming to a stop a few paces away, just as Frank's eyes widened and he scrambled up and away from the door.

"They're coming!" he whispered frantically, and not a moment later, the door blasted apart, shards of glass and splinters of wood flying through the air.

All three Order members fell backward from the force of the blast, though they were far enough away to avoid most of the debris. Mary, however, was the unlucky one of the three, as a rather large and particularly sharp piece of glass tore into her leg. She winced, trying to keep quiet even as pain blossomed and spread through her nerves.

"Are you alright?" Fabian hissed, concern etched across his features, pulling her to shelter behind the nurses' station along with Frank.

"I'm fine, it's nothing," she assured him, trying to put on a confident smile.

They could hear the Death Eaters mounting the last few steps, dread filling the pits of their stomachs.

"We'll never beat these odds," Fabian whispered, entirely downtrodden. "We'll need to do something extreme, something to take out all of them at once."

"And what do you suggest?" Mary asked, not at all liking the sound of his plan.

"An explosion," he continued. "If I can draw them back into the stairwell, and set something off then, it would take them all out without damaging any of the more valuable parts of the hospital. We can't risk letting them get to more patients, or the supplies and equipment. We have to stop them now."

"I'll help you," Mary said, pushing herself to her knees with some difficulty as pain burst through her leg.

"No," Fabian insisted.

"Don't be stupid," she replied, wincing as she took a step forward. "We stick together. That's what we've always done. It's gotten us this far."

"Mary, you can't, you're not strong enough," he said, his expression pleading. Even though his words said that it was because of her leg, there seemed to be something more implied.

"I just want to help you. Why won't you let me?" she fumed, livid that he was pushing her aside like a porcelain doll. She was just as capable of pushing through the pain as he was, her leg didn't have to stop her.

"Mary, for Merlin's sake! Can't you just listen to what I say for once?" Fabian burst out, temper getting the better of him.

Mary looked at him in shock, and then she caught sight of Frank's expression over Fabian's shoulder. It was sad, and almost a little bit pitying. For a second she wondered why, but then it clicked… what Fabian was going to do and why he wouldn't let her help him.

"No," she breathed, turning her gaze back to Fabian and staring at him with wide eyes full of hurt and confusion. "You can't…"

"It's the only way," he said, begging her to understand. "Please forgive me. I love you so much."

Fabian reached across the space between them, his hands finding her cheeks and pulling her toward him roughly. But the touch of his lips on hers was anything but - soft, tender, infinite. She savoured the feel of his heart beating against her hand and his breath ghosting over her skin. Mary could have stayed like that forever, could have completely forgotten about the world around her. But then he was pulling away, and the world was crumbling to pieces.

He looked to Frank who nodded, grim and resolute, before Fabian was scurrying away, toward the East Stairwell. He would run, as quick as he could, across the floor below, and then come up the West Stairs and draw the Death Eaters in from behind.

It wasn't until they were sure that the Death Eaters had fallen for the trap that Frank stood and helped Mary to her feet as well. He tried to protest, but she gave him a look that was enough to silence him quickly. They could see very little, though the sounds of a scuffle carried through the corridor. Mary could imagine it easily in her mind - the flashes of light from the spells, perhaps a Death Eater falling to the ground here or there. And then…

BANG.

Orange light electrified the air, nearly blinding them both, and heat rushed through the corridor. Mary felt like the air was being sucked from her lungs, a peculiar sensation that was as surprising as it was unpleasant. All hope that things might not be so dire drained from her heart in that instant, and she knew without a doubt that Fabian would not survive the blast. Instinct gave way to affection, and all Mary wanted was to transform into a force of nature beyond any other, claw her way through the unfolding explosion, and pull Fabian to safety.

Frank grabbed her around the waist, his forearm like a steel bar across her stomach, and try as she might to push him away and escape his grasp, his vice never wavered. Through the doorway, her eyes found Fabian like a magnet, and she watched his body fly through the air and collide with the wall, horror tearing a scream from her throat.

"Mary!" Frank shouted, turning her away from the scene before them with great difficulty. "Mary, don't look at it. You don't have to look."

"Fabian…" she sobbed, sagging against her friend.

"I'm sorry," Frank whispered. "I'm so sorry, Mary."

He hugged her tightly before easing her to the ground, brushing a bit of dirt from her cheek.

"I have to go check…" he said, swallowing tightly as if he didn't want to say the words.

"You need to look for survivors," Mary finished, her voice hoarse and scratchy.

"Yeah," he confirmed, looking at her appraisingly.

"Go, I'll be fine," she replied, even as tears pooled in her eyes.

Frank nodded and Mary turned her head aside, staring at the while he stood and left to scour the hospital for Death Eaters. The minutes stretched on endlessly, and Mary was just starting to worry that Frank had found his own demise at the hands of an escaped Death Eater when she heard footsteps on the white tile, now stained grey with scorch marks. She gripped her wand tightly in her hand, ready to defend herself if need be, but it was only Frank who rounded the corner.

"He got them all," he said, a bit of pride tinting his voice. "And Emmeline is alright, a Healer found her and is treating her down on the first floor. We should get you looked at as well, someone needs to go make sure those new mothers are alright."

Mary nodded, brushing away her tears. There would be time for grief later, for now, she had work to be done.

*Bleeding Out by Imagine Dragons